Chapter 106
Chapter 106
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 106
Chapter Title: Kalsmori Library (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
What is a sword?
Is a sword merely a tool for slashing and stabbing? If so, then what is a swordsman? Is he merely a person who slashes and stabs?
—It's a tool for killing people.
The memory of a swordsman who could kill even a child for a few coins said.
—No, it's a tool for protecting one's own people.
A warrior who had served his lord his entire life said.
—A sword is just a sword. Giving it meaning is something only fools do.
A swordsman who had spent his life slashing at empty air deep in the mountains said as he ended his days.
—I still don't understand the sword.
And Ropo said that.
Perhaps his words were the most fitting. Every swordsman harbored their own thoughts about what a sword was, deep in their hearts. And they each had their own seemingly plausible reasons.
That was why Ban thought it was good that Ropo said he "didn't know."
Is there such a thing as a right answer in life? No one could answer that. Isn't the person who admits they don't know more courageous than the one who claims to know the answer?
Ban didn't know the answer.
And because of that, he could more completely accept the swords of all the swordsmen he had inherited from.
Kkrrrrrack!
A sound unbelievable to be made by a sword echoed. It was a killing sword, a life-saving sword, a vanishing sword, and a bending sword. That slash, blooming in an instant without the hundreds of sword techniques mixing, cleaved the world while containing as many lives as those techniques.
—Shaaa!
The fire-spewing serpent hissed, flicking its tongue. The sword-red flames it spat instead of poison seemed ready to melt Ban at any moment, but Ban didn't even twitch an eyebrow.
His wrist ached. The scales, the flames—nothing was easy. But Ban didn't retreat. It might be venting frustration on something undeserving, but if he didn't, his chest would burst with pent-up rage.
[……The Guardian's power. It's been a long time since I've seen it.]
One of the wraiths muttered in a quiet voice. The demonic energy of Kishin entwined with Ban's power was so immense that even the mightiest swordsman would be swallowed whole. As demonic energy grew stronger the deeper the night, in the heart of night territory, Kishin's power might surpass Ban's qi in sheer magnitude.
Yet Ban wasn't swayed by Kishin's demonic energy. Though Kishin's deep-seated grudge against the night now shook his mind, through Heavenly Spirit's lessons, Ban had learned how to walk as a swordsman, not just as a sword.
'I won't give blood. Kishin. But don't forget—you're my sword.'
Ban gripped Kishin's hilt as if to snap it. His mind was turbulent, but his blade embraced even that turmoil, resounding more fiercely.
—Hahaha! Ban, you're the best master! The absolute best!
The fire-spewing serpent. He had scales harder than steel and flames that could burn even lava.
But what about Ban?
He couldn't spit fire, and his human flesh was merely a bit tougher than average.
That was why he held a sword. One that could cleave any lump of metal and protect him from any threat.
His blade slashed flames, slashed the sky, and at times, harbored fire.
—Oh, ooooh……!
Kishin's strangled scream rang out. Was it an illusion? Or coincidence? The moment he thought Kishin's demonic energy had briefly turned white like Nahar's White Flame, the serpent's flames, scales, and body split apart.
"......."
The wraiths frowned as they looked at the serpent's corpse. As if to say the flames they'd just seen were a mistake, the corpse burned in blue fire. Ban sheathed Kishin and said.
"Let's go."
He spoke as if nothing had happened.
"The road is long."
§
'Am I stronger?'
Ban thought as he looked down at his hand. He had felt it while slashing the serpent. By not holding a sword, he realized how remarkable it was to hold one. Just gripping a sword turned an ordinary boy gathering herbs into a swordsman who could kill.
A sword was that terrifying. Killing an ordinary person didn't require great training. Even a child swinging a sword could send a larger adult to the afterlife.
In that sense, wasn't training with a sword not really training to "kill people"? In most cases, killing became possible the moment you gripped the sword. Of course, the more you trained, the more opponents you could grant death to…….
'A great swordsman is one who can choose not to slash anyone.'
Because he can choose not to slash anyone, he can slash anyone at the same time. He was mulling over those words that seemed to make sense and not when.
[ You must be hungry.]
A wraith held a chunk of the serpent Ban had just slain. When had they butchered it? Watching the wraith light a fire with white firewood from Pendel, Ban quietly opened his mouth.
"I won't eat."
[ Is it because this firewood grew from Nahar's body?]
"My betrothed is from the Nahar Clan. I can't accept the benefit of burning that tree for such a reason."
[ Their suffering is over. And firewood is just firewood.]
"......."
[ Countless people are buried in this land, and we've prospered eating the fruits it bore. Do you intend to call them all cannibals?]
"......Please give it to me."
Ban let out a sigh.
"I'll eat."
The serpent meat tasted better than expected, but it wasn't that great a dish. How delicious could grilled meat sprinkled with a bit of salt be? Especially from a beast.
Only Ban and Hwan put meat to their mouths. The wraiths couldn't eat by nature. At some point, Hwan started coughing repeatedly, and Ban finally stopped eating to speak.
"Could you stop staring? It feels like I'll get indigestion."
[ ……Sorry. It's been too long since we've tasted food. Watching someone else eat is the most entertaining spectacle.]
"Why didn't you just pass on? Wherever the afterlife is, it seems better than here."
[ It's not about wanting a comfortable body to stay in this world.]
Balrog laughed.
[ It's about wanting peace of mind.]
In the end, it was about lingering attachments keeping them from leaving. Ban looked at Balrog and asked. He had noticed some time ago that Balrog unofficially led these wraiths.
"Have you never thought it best to leave the affairs of the living to the living?"
[ I have.]
Balrog nodded readily.
[ But after I saved a child who was nearly torn apart by a beast with my own hands, I stopped. Are you saying I should have let that child die since I returned to this world?]
"……You're making it hard to answer."
Ban sighed. Hwan, tearing into serpent meat, asked.
"Did your desire to change the world become your lingering regret?"
[ ……Who knows. I just felt I couldn't leave things as they are. My wife was swallowed by the night, and I don't even know where my children went. Maybe they're waiting for me in the afterlife. But when I came to, I was here.]
"Do you remember anything after dying?"
[ Well, maybe I met a god. Did he ask me? Would I go to a paradise of wine and fruit, or become a wraith wandering this world eternally without a drop of water? Did I choose to become a wraith? If so, why?]
"You're asking questions, not giving answers."
[ That's what I mean—I know nothing.]
Balrog chuckled ruefully.
[ Until I know that answer, I can't leave this world.]
To learn why he became a wraith, the wraith lives as a wraith. Before such a distorted life—or death—what could the living say?
Ban suddenly thought his own life might not differ much from a wraith's, aside from breathing and eating. Balrog lives to find why he became a wraith; Ban lives to find why he was born. Though the expressions differ, the reason is the same—they live and die again today.
[ Do you hate the Revolutionary Corps?]
"......."
Ban silently met Balrog's eyes at the sudden question. Balrog smiled bitterly and said.
[ Don't hate them too much. They're just full of wounds. You might think they're rampaging madly out of anger at the world, but they're the ones who love the world most. And that's why……they can't accept that the world doesn't love them back.]
"I don't hate them. I just won't cheer them on. I know how terrifying the thought of being the only one awake and pursuing truth can lead."
In the end, kingdom or Revolutionary Corps, they did the same. War. Only the targets differed.
"I'm tired of debating who's right between the kingdom and the Revolutionary Corps, who to hate more. I'll slash this world. End the conflict tying Anya to that Pendel, end the kingdom's pettiness or weakness that lets its people be swallowed by night. Then go live where there's no need to judge right and wrong, friend or foe."
[ Is that your dream?]
"……Dream. I've never thought of it that way, but I suppose it is. Interesting."
Ban smirked. A swordsman speaking of a dream with no sword in it. The title of kingdom's greatest swordsman no longer tasted sweet.
[ But is that possible?]
That was when Balrog asked. Ban turned his head. Meeting Ban's quiet gaze, Balrog asked like a child unable to contain curiosity.
[ Suppose you hold a sword that can slash everything in this world. Power to take anyone's head you desire anytime. Would peace come then?]
Before Ban could answer, Balrog asked again.
[ For peace, what do you intend to slash?]
§
—Hey, Ban! I like you lately! Really like you! Well, hanging out with those human traitor scraps is a bit off-putting……but I like you enough to overlook it! Good job!
'……Ah, yeah. Thanks a lot.'
Ban replied with a lukewarm expression to Kishin's enthusiastic praise. The guy who always grumbled about human traitors had been in high spirits ever since entering night territory.
—Should've found a decent swordsman like you sooner! Damn, with my pathetic swordsmanship, I couldn't even show my superior power properly! Get it?
Was he boasting or insulting? Listening to his confusing speech would just give Ban a headache. Instead of engaging Kishin, Ban looked down at the "noble" he had just slain.
Of course, "noble" meant night noble. This one was humanoid. And in a group.
Ban turned to Balrog.
"I know noble-class ones don't usually group up this easily. Any idea what's happening?"
[ It means an upheaval in their ecosystem.]
"……Good sign?"
[ Well, upheavals usually work against us in most situations.]
"A very strong individual appeared, or……a new force emerged. One or the other, I think."
[ Kalsmori Library is at the entrance to the Abyss. But being the entrance, it's swarming with more noble-class beasts and wraiths. If a being so strong it stands out even there has appeared…….]
"Better avoid it?"
[ Our goal isn't to exterminate the night—it's to reach Kalsmori Library. Right?]
"……Yes."
Ban nodded. He didn't overestimate his power. No matter how sharp his blade, someone with a sharper one could appear anytime. Especially in a place like night territory where human laws lost power.
'What will change if I get the Guardian's sword?'
As Balrog asked, even if he gained a sword to slash everything, could he just excise the world's pus?
How long would Anya have to keep the lighthouse burning for him?
The answer, as always, lay buried under his worries, refusing to surface. Half a month wandering darkness beyond lighthouse or Pendel flames.
[ ……There it is. Kalsmori Library.]
At Balrog's voice, Ban raised his head.
All the swords in the world were now half a day ahead.